January 20, 2023
Just a few weeks into the new year, the trend of foreign recruiters looking to the Caribbean to fill job vacancies seems to be continuing. This despite uncertainty over a forecasted recession and related fears about how international labour markets could be impacted.
Caribbean Employment Services Inc. had previously noted a marked uptick in companies from the United Kingdom, the United States and Canada turning to Caribbean labour to supplement shortages. Caribbean Employment Services Inc. is a market-leading digital talent acquisition service that aims to connect the top talent from the Caribbean with hiring managers, HR professionals and decision-makers in companies both within the Caribbean as well as abroad. Further, it aims to provide the region’s jobseekers and those who are already employed with news and resources related to Caribbean labour.
While the trend peaked around mid-summer 2022, it seemed to decrease towards the end of the year. However, some employers are already picking the trend back up again, and it remains to be seen how this will develop if major world economies actually enter a recession as projected.
“It’s not uncommon for businesses from abroad, and especially the UK, US or Canada, to look to the Caribbean to hire,” said Joseph Boll, Caribbean Employment Services Inc. CEO. “Just given this region’s proximity, in the case of North America, and its rich, complex history in the case of both North America and Britain, it’s no surprise that those regions found they could rely on the Caribbean for manpower. Especially since Caribbean workers are known to be of the highest caliber.”
However, Boll pointed out that unexpected labour conditions had something of a “spillover” effect last year, between Brexit in the UK, the Great Resignation/Great Reshuffling in the US and an aging workforce in Canada.
Now, he says uncertainty about a recession could be another factor shifting international labour markets in a way that benefits Caribbean workers. But even this could play out in an unprecedented way, the CEO added. For instance, he revealed that a major Canadian employer has partnered with his organization to actively recruit in Barbados. But the difference between this and last year is that in this instance, the roles are based locally in Barbados instead of abroad.
“Last summer, we saw a lot of companies offering to actually bring Caribbean workers over into their countries,” Boll noted. “We saw them offering packages so competitive that some local businesses felt hard-pressed to compete. So far, while it seems that companies are still looking to this region, it could be that fears about a recession are prompting them to perhaps cut costs and not bend over backwards as much as they did last year.”
Boll commented that it may be too early to tell how much recession fears will impact this hiring and recruitment trend. However, he pledged that Caribbean Employment Services Inc. will remain committed to monitoring such developments.